""^For his wit can no more lie nid, then it 
coula be lost. Reade nim, tnererore; and 
agame, and againe : And ir then you doe not like 
kim, surely you are in some manirest clanger, 
not to understana nim. 




MYSTERYoFTffi MARBLES 




By Ckarles B. Stilwell 



\5Tone\ 



^ \Monn f 

Good frend for Iesvs ^ake forbearl, 

TO Dice TIE DVST ENCLOASED H:ARL^» 
BuEyE BE f MAN ^ SPARE J -HE^" STONES, 
AND CVRST BE HE \ MOVES MY BONES* 



iiicnufn^m 



IVDICIO PylIVM, CENIO SoCRATEM.ARTE MaRONEM 

Terra tecit POpvLvs'Mi«E.RET. Olympvs habet 
'Stay Passenger why goest "HovbvsofasT/ 

READ IF ■HW CANST, WHOM ENVIOVS DEATI HATI PLAST, 
mT\ IN VAS MONVrEfsT SHAKLSPEARE:\i^T1 ^:WOME . 
QTIGK NATVRE D!DE:WH0SE NAFE.DOTJ DECKt TOMBE . 
!aR MORE JEN COST: SlEH ALL.'V' HE HATH WRITT, 

Leaves LIVING ART, BVT page, to serve hiswitt. 

OBIIT ANO do' r 6 1 6 
/tTATIS i-) DIE iJA^ • 



DIRECTIONS AND RULES 
For Deciphering the Secret Message Hidden in the Inscriptions 

Near or within the words or parts to be joined are Word-signs or other 
marks to indicate sequences. Search these out. 

If they agree with the Working List of words, or the Rules, join the parts 
so marked. There are no exceptions. 



RULES 

1 . Like joins Like. 

Marks or Words that are Alike 
are used for signs, — 
For example : Parts marked with 
misplaced dots are to be joined to 
other parts similarly marked. 

2. All forms of the same word are 

alike. 



WORKING UST 



3. Words having Like Forms or Like 

Meanings are alike and may be 
joined. 

4. Words may be joined to the words 

they define. 

* The word ART is also used as a sign (or Shakespeare, 



The verb 



That 
This 
Who 

Go 
Leave 



Tobe^* 



^ These Joining-words 
bring parts together. 



Cloase 
Die 
Pass 
Spare 



1 These Directing-words 
J are guide-posts 



These words hint at 
Stops or Omissions. 



V 



^ 



T'R^lt-'' 



'?y 



Copyriglit 1911 by Ckarles B. Stilwell 



Entered at Stationers riall 

London 

1911 



All rights reserved 



©CI.A283312 



Tke Mystery of tke Marbles 



"And these are your wonderful rub- 
bings ? You know that I saw Shakes- 
peare's Tomb when I was abroad last 
summer and I recognize these copies of 
the inscriptions, but why do you call them 
rubbings ?" 

"Because these facsimiles were made 
by rubbing a preparation of plumbago 
upon the sheets of paper while they lay 
upon the stones : just as children make 
paper money from coins by rubbing the 
paper on top of the coin with a lead- 
pencil. It insures true reproductions of 
all the characters upon the original. Did 
you read the inscriptions when you saw 
them?" 

"What a curious question. Of course, 
I read them. Do you imagine I could 
pass by without?" 

"If you really read them, my dear 
young lady, you are, probably, the only 
one who ever did, in nearly three hun- 
dred years." 

"Pardon my stupidity, but I don't 
catch the gist of your jest, my dear sir." 

"I am not jesting. The inscriptions 
were designed so as not to be read — 
without a key. They are great hypo- 
crits ; they profess to be what they are 
not." 

"Do not the words mean what they 
say ?" 

"The words ; yes. The sentences ; not 
at all. They are the loveliest liars in 
Modern Latin and mixed English that 
ever led a learned man astray." 

"Really, I fancy we could see these 
rubbings of yours blush for very shame, 
if their faces were not so black. Don't 
you ?" 

"No more than the originals, my dear, 
which never have been known to change 
expression since they were born. They 
have a most generous heart, but a con- 
science as hard as Stone. For deception 
is their business, or rather a Fine Art ; 
as you shall see. If you will honor me 
bv taking this seat beside me at the table. 



I will show you my promised wonder — 
the Mystery of the Marbles. 

"For convenience sake we will spread 
out the sheets of cipher writings, for 
such they are, on the table, and will place 
the one marked Stone at the top ; the 
one marked Monument just below it, and 
under these, where we can see it at a 
glance, this sheet of Directions and Rules. 
We must utterly ignore the pretences and 
bold declarations of these writings and 
use them as did their Author ; simply as 
storehouses full of words to carry a 
cipher message. This we will unfold 
and develope by a method very like solv- 
ing a jig-saw puzzle, in which the irregu- 
lar little blocks fit together so beautifully 
and reproduce the form of the original 
picture, when properly matched. In our 
puzzle we are to use words instead of 
wooden blocks and, if we can pick them 
out of our storehouses and match them 
correctly, we shall have the original form 
of the secret message, just as it was 
before the words were separated and all 
jumbled up, as they are in tlie inscrip- 
tions before us." 

"Who do you suppose did such a crazy 
thing and why did he do it?" 

"We will find out why it was done 
as soon as we solve our puzzle. I will 
show you who did it afterward. Will 
you now please take the pencil and tablet 
before you and write down the words of 
the message as we find them. Now what 
words shall we choose for a beginning?" 

"Why, the first one on the Stone, of 
course. A message always begins at the 
upper left-hand corner, doesn't it?" 

"No, my dear, cipher messages don't 
as a rule. You happen to be right about 
the word, however ; it is the first one we 
want. Not because of its position in the 
inscriptions, it might have been tucked 
in anywhere, but because it is the most 
obvious beginning. The Decipherer is 
plainly addressed as 'C700D fren'd' ; so 
please write that down at the top of your 
paper 



'GOOD frend: 

Now after 'frexd' write the three words 
that follow 

'FOR JESUS sake: 

Before we go any -further I will ask you 
to please me by carefully reading over 
the Directions and Rules. Try to fix 
them in your mind. There are but few 
of them and they are very simple." 

"I think perhaps I have them now. 

If I forget, I can pretend I remember 
without peeking in the book. Can't I ?" 

"At school it would be very repre- 
hensible, but here, in our game of 'Hide 
and Seek,' peeking is the greatest virtue 
and should be carefully cultivated. Now 
do you see anything that makes the words 
on the Stone, 'for Jfsus s.\ke,' appear 
odd?" 

"Why there is a dot over the J." 

"Are not j's usually dotted?" 

"Yes, sir, but this is a capital letter J 
and we never dot them; do we?" 

"No, my dear. This is a misplacerl dot 
and we will see what the rules say about 
it. Please read that portion to me." 

" 'Parts marked with misplaced dots 
are to be joined to other parts similarly 
marked.' " 

"Very well, then, let us search for 
another part so marked." 

"There is no other dot out of place, 
that I can see, on the Stone." 

"Then look on the Monument, please." 

"I see two there." 

"All right. Now v\diich one of the 
two shall be our choice." 

"Well, of course, I don't know any- 
thing about this kind of match making, 
but if I am to pick it out we'll try our 
luck with this dot at the beginning of the 
third line." 

"What gives you that hint?" 

"Why — this dot is at the top of the 
line, more like our dot over the J than 
the other dot, wdiich appears to be below 
the line. Is that right ?" 

"Quite right, my dear; that is the idea. 
'To join like likes, and kiss like native 
things', is the Great Rule. Now what 
words are next to your dot ?" 

" 'Stay P.vssenger why goest.' " 

"Please write down the first and third 
words." 

"STAY li'HY." 



"May I use your third word to ask 
zi'hy you didn't take 'P.vssenger' and 
'goest' and all the rest of the line?" 

"Yes indeed, and I hope you will use 
it very often during the game. Our Pas- 
senger has a P.\ss, therefore we must 
let him alone; pass him by. Do you get 
the hint?" 

"Sure. Pass is in the List." 

" 'Goest' tells us to go away from the 
Monument, before we take any other 
word, to the Stone, where we shall find 
the ne.xt one." 

' 'Go' is in the list, too. Why this is 
becoming interesting." 

"Now examine these markings for a 
moment; observe the beauty of their re- 
markable simplicity and perfection. The 
Author writes a message that he wishes 
to conceal and, at the same time, desires 
that it shall be read just as he wrote it. 
So he writes an epitaph and a doggerel 
that any one may read. These he com- 
poses so as to include the words uf his 
secret ihessage, together with certain 
other words and marks, to insure its 
correct unfolding. There must be no 
guess work about it. Please look at our 
sentence 'St.JiY P.v.ssenger why goest'. 
N'otice how 'St.\y' and 'why' are not 
only found, but are hedged in against 
error by the misplaced dot at one end 
of the sentence and by the word 'go' 
at the other. Besides that, he tells us 
which word to omit by a syllable of that 
very word itself. What could be 
plainer? No guessing to be done here; 
is there? Then the barrier 'go' is also 
used to tell us where to find our next 
word. Only one who was born with a 
genius for the very highest order of lit- 
erary work could so skilfully use ordi- 
nary words to do double writing like 
this. But now having arrived at the 
Stone, how shall we find our next word?" 

"You may search me, as Jack says." 

'As you are not a culprit and as I 
am not an officer of the law, I forbear. 
forbeare' is our next word." 

"How do we know that?" 

"Because we are guided bv dots. We 
have just been forbidden to take another 
word from the Monument, so we must 
use the only dot on the Stone for our 
sign and take the rest of its line and 
sentence. Please write 



'FORBEARE TO DIGG THE DqST'." 

"But why not take 'encloased here'? 
It seems to sound familiar." 

'Ah yes, and the new arrangement 
sounds strangely, does it not ? But we 
must not disdain the hint whispered by 
"ENCLOASED.' The sentence is closed." 

■'Well; who would have thought it?" 

"The Author, my dear. lie was a 
most skilful but wilful wizard with 
words, and I want you to particularly 
notice, as we progress, how he manages 
to get double duty out of his little ser- 
vants. We will come back again to this 
place presently, for further help from 
this same word. We are still guided by 
dots, I believe. Where is the next one?" 

"The only one we have not used is 
under 'Socratem' on the Monument." 

"Where is it located ?" 

"Under the letter 'O'." 

"Well, as that dot is under the middle 
letter of two words which are flanked 
by punctuation marks, we will take both 
and write 

"GENIO SOCRATEM."- 

"What does that mean ?" 

"A Genius like Socrates. Now hav- 
ing finished with the dots we must find 
a different sign to lead us to our ne.xt 
word. What word follows 'Socr.xtem'?" 

" 'arte'." 

"Art is a form of the verb 'To be,' 
one of the joining words given in the 
List. This Latin word 'arte' means 
artist, but it has a like form, therefore 
in accordance with Rule 3 we must look 
for another 'art'. Can you find one ?" 

"Oh, yes sir. There is the word 'art' 
in the eighth line, but it is not spelled 
like the first one." 

"The spelling, my careful scholar, does 
not signify. What words are on either 
side of it?" 

"living' and 'rut'." 

"Is there a comma after 'art'?'' 

"Yes, sir." 

"Then we will exclude 'but' and scan 
the words in the sentence ending with 
'art.' What are they ?" ■ 

"There is only one other word ; 
'Leaves'." 

" 'Leaves living art'. If we choose 
the first of the two I think we shall 
come out all right. If not, we will dis- 



cover our error and correct it. So please 
write down 

"LEAVES." 

Our joining words are still forms of the 
verb 'To be.' What do you find?" 

No other on the Monument, but there 
are two 'be's' on the .Stone." 

"If they were on the Monument we 
should be stung if we touched either of 
them for the word 'Leaves' has given 
us that warning. It commands us to 
leave the Monument and go to the Stone ; 
this is the reason why I chojfise 'Leaves,' 
alone, just now. But 'Blest be you be's 
that make these locks of counsel' on the 
Stone. What sweet word tempts the first 
'be'?" 

"Blest if I know. It reacLs — 'Bleste 
be' something. There is an 'e' over a 
'v' and a 't' over a 'y'." 

"That's an old way of writing the 
words 'the,' 'that' and 'this.' The letter 
'y' stands for 'tli,' and should be so pro- 
nounced. Now please read it again." 

" 'Bleste be the man that'." 

"We will take 'the man that' as these 
words follow 'be' and because 'That' is 
one of the joining words in our List and 
it will lead us to the next word, so you 
may write 

"THE MAN THAT." 

Now please find another 'That'." 

"That is no trouble. The 'that' we 
used is standing on top of another 
'that'." 

"We must get rid of sucli a rude fel- 
low. Suppose we put the down trodden 
one in his place and also move up the 
word next following," 

"Why don't we write 'my bones'?" 
"They are not yours, but only dead 
bones, and we will leave them alone." 

"But the word 'spares' seems to be 
in the way." 

"Not at all. Acting upon the hint it 
gives we will spare 'spares' from our 
company and write the sentence with 
'moves' in 'spares' place. 

"MO]'ES THES STONES." 

Now what joining word is near 
'stones' ?" 

"The word 'these'." 

"How do you know 'these' is a join- 
ing word ?" 



,/ 



"Why it's the plural of 'This' in the 
List." 

"Then please seek its mate." 

"I find two words "this' on the Monu- 
ment. The first, in the fifth line in the 
sentence "within this monument', the 
second in the sixth line in the sentence 
'deck this Tombe'." 

'T think we will take the second 'this'. 
To my mind there is suggested a rela- 
tionship between 'Tombe' and 'stones,' 
as we have it in the word tomb-stone ; 
also there are decked stones for tombs. 
Sometimes we are obliged to reason it 
out, to get at the thought of the Author, 
in places where he was compelled to re- 
peat his joining-signs. We must ever 
keep a sharp lookout for such faint hints 
as he was able to give us." 

"Oh, my dear friend, I can never learn 
that part of your cipher." 

"Aly dear child you can. One can 
learn to read a cipher as one learns to 
read very illegible writing, full of mis- 
used and misspelled words ; by becoming 
familiar with the chirography, the 
writer's thought and mode of expression. 
But let us proceed. The word follow- 
ing "this' is 'Tombe'. Now it is made 
plain by the sense that the testator 
'Leaves the man' something the tomb 
contains, but not the tomb itself. We 
will therefore skip that word for the 
present and let our joining word 'this' 
give us the rest of the sentence follow- 
ing 'TOAIBE' which you will please 
write down 

■■FAR MORE THAN COST.- 

And the next joining word is?" 

"Why, sir, I can't find any." 

"Quite true, and neither directing word 
'Go'~nor 'Leave'. So we must remain 
at 'this Tombe' and take a survey of 
our surrovmdings. Just over the word 
'Tombe' is the pronoun 'whome' (spelled 
with an e), and iu our 'Tombe' line is 
the word 'whose', so 'Who' seems to be 
our joining word, and you may write 
down 

-HE WHOSE name:' 

"But the word 'he' is not there. Why 
do I write it?" 

"I will answer a little later in some ex- 
planations about another word. Now 



please find another 'whom' (without the 
e) in the fourth line and write the words 
before it 

-READ IF THOU CANST." 

Now the wortls that follow 

■'HATH PLACED WITHIN THIS 
MONUMENT." 

"Why did you skip 'envious Death'?'' 

"I suppose because I have been fortu- 
nate. But the words 'envious Death' 
give us the hint that they are dead words. 
\\'e have 'Die' in our List. We now come 
to the joining words of Rule 3 again. 
Please read it." 

" 'Words having like forms or like 
meanings are alike and may be joined'." 

"In our last line we have the words 
'placed within', while on the Stone we 
have the word 'Ex\clo.\sed' conveying the 
same idea ; for whether your letters to 
Jack are placed within envelopes or en- 
closed therein, it means just the same 
to him. So we will connect the two 
parts bv the conjunction 'and,' then add 
the word following 'enci.oased' and you 
will please write 

and -ENCLOASED HEARE.'' 

Now let us go back to the Monument 
and make use of our familiar acquaint- 
ance, which now write 

■■THIS TOMBE." 

We must Use these words to define 
'heare' and join them in accordance with 
Rule 4. Again, 'this Tombe', which 
proves to be a sort of central station or 
key, gives us the half of the line just 
below it. So please write 

■■ALL THAT HE HATH WRITT.'' 

Now tell me what word is just before 
our last sentence." 

"I don't know what the word is or 

how to pronounce it. It is spelled 

S-I-E-H." 

"Well, my dear, it is not a familiar 
word and is quite unpronounceable, 
nevertheless it is a most remarkalile word 
and there is a very remarkalile thing to be 
said about it. Please bear in mind that 
this word is on Shakespeare's Monu- 
ment ; that Shakespeare died in the year 
1616, and that the monument was erected 



sometime after his death, probably about 
1623, the date of the publication of the 
First Folio Edition of the Shakespeare 
plays. I will now turn to one of the 
Shakespeare Tragedies and will read to 
you some curious lines that actually tell 
us how to interperet this strange word. 
The play is "Timon of Athens" and the 
suggestion is in Act V in Scenes 4 and 
5. This play, by the way, appeared for 
the first time in the Folio Edition of 
1623. Scene IV is very short. .A. soldier 
enters, reads only eleven lines, and exits. 
But in his few lines he is made to say 

" 'There does not live a man, dead 
sure: and this his grave. What's on his 
tomb I can not read, the character I'll 
take in zi^'ax — zchose soft impression in- 
terprets for my poor ignorance.' 

"The last line is in Scene V. Now if 
we were to take a wax impression of 
SiEH it would show us the word re- 
versed. So if we reverse the reading, 
that is, read S-i-e-h backward we get 
HE iS; please write it down 

"HE IS." 

And now I will show you how we got 
the word 'he' which you thought should 
not be written before "whose name." It 
is not the 'he' in the words 'he iS' just 
found in "Sieh" which we have 'chosen, 
but the 'he' on the Stone in the line 
'cursed he he.' We joined the latter 
'he' to 'whose name' because the re- 
versed word 'iS in 'Sieh' was placed 
directly under the word "whose.' Our 
joining word was 'Who' ; so we came 
from the sign 'whome' through 'whose' 
to 'iS," which carried us to "be he' and 
gave us the word we needed. We must 
be very careful to choose the specific 
word required and not another just like 
it, or we shall be switched off on the 
wrong track before we know it and come 
to grief in a wreck. Besides 'he' and 
'is' must not be put asunder, because 
the couple were made one by their maker ; 
but we may join the pair to other com- 
pany. Please find another match for 
'iS'.'"' 

"On the line below, nearly underneath, 
is the word 'art' which we used with the 
Latin word. Can you match with the 
same word twice?" 



"As many times as it wins words, my 
dear. Please write down the word just 
before 'art.' 

"L/r/.YC." 

Now all the words that follow 'living' 
except the very last line which shall 'die' 
in its tracks for the present. 

"ART BUT PAGE TO SERINE HIS 
WIT. OBIIT ANO DO! 1616." 

"But please, teacher, I know obit means 
died. Why does the sentence say Art 
died in 1616?" 

"You will please answer your own 
question by recollecting the footnote in 
the Directions." 

"Oh ! 'art' is to be translatetl Shakes- 
peare just as 'doi' is to be translated 'of 
Our Lord." I see. The little word is only 
a sign for the big word intended. But 
where did you find these Directions and 
Rules and how did you guess what words 
to work with?" 

"They are all given to us in cipher .in 
the Shakespeare plays, all except the 
words in the Working List. We are not 
expected to guess at anything, so these 
words are indicated on the Monument 
and Stone. I must tell you something 
about this Cipher. Different words are 
used as keys to unlock the doors of the 
several secret chambers ; that is, to en- 
able us to find the scattered parts of the 
cipher story. These words are called 
'keys' and they are always intimately re- 
lated to and suggested by the subject mat- 
ter of the te.xt. .\s we here are dealing 
with a tomb and a monument, the words 
'Tom be' and 'monument' are the key- 
words used in these Inscriptions. Now 
will you please notice the little words that 
are nestled so closely about these keys 



MVHO 


WHO 


T1I5 MONVTErr 


WHO 


tlOMBE 




BE 

BE 


^ 

^ 



By this device we are shown the joining 
words 'This' and 'Who.' They are both 
near a key-word and each is repeated. 



S 



The verb 'To be' is universally used as 
a joining word and is indicated by two 
'be's on the Stone. The word 'That' is 
shown by the simple device of locating 
two 'that's' very close to each other near 
the verb 'be.' The directing words "Go" 
and 'Leave' are universally used as guide- 
posts, as are also all other words meaning 
departure. The words that give hints 
are shown by their suggestive implica- 
tion. 

We have now come to the end of our 
journey through the maze, and if you will 
look at this graphic illustration which I 
have prepared, it will show you at a 
glance just what we have been doing 
and what we have gleaned from the in- 
scriptions by strict adherence to Direc- 
tion and Rule. I have arranged the parts 
as if they were the little blocks of a 
puzzle, solved, with all the extraneous 
verbiage swept out of the way. I,t shows 
very clearly, I think, how the parts have 
been brought together and follow each 
cither in their proper sequences by match- 
ing the joining signs correctly. 
What do you think of it?" 

"I don't know what to think of it. It 
is truly so wonderful and unexpected 
that I am just a little bit bewildered. I 
see now why the people have not really 
read the inscriptions. But who put them 
on the grave-stone and on the monument ? 
And what writings do you imagine he 
hid in such a very strange place ?", 

"I will let the man himself answer 
your question. He has written a letter 
about it." 

"A letter? That's more surprising still. 
Where did you get hold of the letter and 
to whom did the man write it?" 



"To the first one who could read the 
writing on the wall and should discover 
the letter, I suppose. Let me tell you 
about it. In the first Folio Edition 
( 1623 ) of the Shakespeare plays there 
is a Dedication, in which is 'The Epistle 
Dedicatory', an address 'To the Great 
X'ariety of Readers' ; followed by some 
commendatory verses signed with differ- 
ent names. I was led to suspect a con- 
nection between the grave-stone and these 
writings by the suggestive word 'Digg.' 
There is the word 'Digg,' (with a 
double g), on the stone and "Digges' is 
the signature to one of the poems ; so I 
took the hint and began to do a little 
digging. I searched these Dedicatory 
epistles carefully and a very little 'similar 
matter' in The Plays and by the very 
same method that we have just used to 
get the message of the marbles, I de- 
veloped and brought out the hidden let- 
ter. These writings, by the way, are as 
misleading as the Inscriptions on the 
marbles : they were all written by the 
same man ( though signed with several 
real names) for no other purpose than 
to furnish store houses of words for his 
letter. 

It will be too great a tax on you to 
work this out to-day, as you did the 
other. There is so much more luatter 
t(5 be searched and the words are not 
found so readily. Besides that, you 
would have to listen to some further 
instructions in the cipher methods, which 
would be tedious. I will therefore show 
you the message and the letter ; each in 
its true form." 



THE MESSAGE 
Deciphered from Grave Stone and Tablet on Monument 



\Vhy iorb< 



Good Frend; 
For Jesus sake, stay, w ny roroeare 

to cligg the dust? 
A Genius like Socrates leaves the 



man that moves tries stones far more 

then cost. 
He, Avhose name read ir thou canst, 

hath placea Avithin tnis Monument 

and encloased keare (this XomDe) all 

tnat He nath Avritt. 
He IS living. Shakespeare, (but page 

to serve his witt), died m the year 

of Our Lord 1616. 

Bacon 

1623 



THE LETTER 
Deciphered from the Dedication 

London 1623 
Most Notle and ^A^ortky Friend, 

Xo make a roome, withm whose strong emures 
tkese plays noAv lye, a Moniment Avitnout a tombe 
doth rise. 

Here thou seest put, as a lance Drandisn t at 
tke eyes of Ignorance, This Figure cut for Shake- 
speare. 

Wken Dy tny -works tnat stone aoove tn 
Stratford Moniment is rent, turne tne same (and 
kimself witn it) and spare not. 

If need \vere I should tell how far from thence 
to seek. Xnere you Avill fmde enough Dotn to 



draAV and nold you, for tnese remaines of our 
servant Snakespeare ; that corp s, that coffin, 
no'v^ be gone. (Deaths publique tyring-nouse) 
the Nuncius is; committed by a payre so care- 
full Guardians, most Dounden to sncAv tneir grat- 
itude Doth to tne living and tne dead. 

Go no\v to the Graves— roome NVherem, (as 
we nave observed no man to come neere, but 
^vitn a kind of religious addresse,), it hatn bin 
tbe neigbt of our care and paine to bave collected 
all tbe Plays contained in tbis Catalogue. 

In tbese t\vo places are tbe true origmall copies 
of tbe Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, and 
all tbe rest— all tbat was ever writ before 1623 — 
absolute m tbeir numbers. 

Finde tbem soone, we pray, for seeliest Igno- 
rance or blmde Affection or crafty Malice on 
tbese by cbance may ligbt. If tberefore you 
come not m confidence and soone, you are in 
some manifest danger not to be first. 

\Vilst we studie in our particular to bonour 
you botb in designes and Avorkes, ^ve cannot ^o 
beyond our owne powers. 

And so we leave you. JDut stay, for names, 
see tbose of Tbe Principall Actor m all tbese 

Playes. Tbe first of tbe Comedies bast one: 

To sbo"w^e 
To wbom all scenes 
Of Europe bomage o^ve. 

He ^vas not Sbakespeare, as said, but— Bacon. 
Francis. 

*News 



"Francis Bacon? Does that name ap- 
pear in the Inscriptions and in the Dedi- 
cation of the Shakespeare plays?" 

"Yes, my dear, plainly — to the De- 
cipherer. As from the Monument we 
got the name Shakespeare in the mes- 
sage, not from the word 'Shakespeare' 
there, which any man may read, but 
from the secret word-sign 'art' ; so here, 
in the letter, the names are shown by 
word-signs. 'Age' is used for Shakes- 
peare, 'Time' for Bacon. 'The first of 
the comedies' referred to is Merry Wives 
of Windsor. From Act II, Scene 3, we 
get the first name 'of The Principle Actor 
in all these plays,' Francis, from 'Fran- 
cisco' there shown. This word is 'fran- 
coyes' in both of the earlier ( 1602 and 
1619) editions of this play and our let- 
ter makes it plain that the word was in 
all probability changed for this purpose. 
'Francisco' does not appear elsewhere in 
the Comedies. By the way, if you will 
study ']\Ierry Wives of \\ indsor' care- 
fully in the light of knowledge just 
gained, using the play as a store house 
qf words only, you will find a lot of in- 
structions about the cipher methods, 
which you may be able to unfold for 
yourself, after a few trials. You must 
lose sight of the Play entirely and think 
only of the Lesson. Learn to recognize 
the language addressed directly to the 
cipher student. For instance, in Act III, 
Scene 3, 'Ford' is made to say, 'Here, 
here, here be my keys: search, seek, find 
out.' In this very plain and open way 
the author tells the Decipherer that 
'search,' 'seek,' and 'find out' are key- 
words. In like manner and by the repe- 
tition of words are many hints given to 
the student, quite as plainly, throughout 
all of the plays. But while we are on 
the subject of names would you like to 
see the name Francis Bacon in another 
of the Shakespeare plays where both 
parts are in plain type?" 

"Is it there?" 

"The two names are not together, of 
course; but as you have learned how 
words are to be joined I will show you 
the places where they occur in the play 



and you shall find the little joining word 
and bring the parts together." 

"But I can't find the joining word 
without a list ; can I ?" 

"Oh, yes, you will be able to find it 
easily. It is repeated many times just 
to attract your notice. Here is the play — 
First Part of King Henry the Fourth, 
Act II, Scenes 2 and 4." 

"Yes, I see the word 'bacon' with a 
small 'b' in 'bacon feci knaves.' ' Oh ! 
Here is another, 'On bacons on.' Why 
'on' must be the joining word ; let me 
look for Francis. Oh, dear, there are 
so many Francises, but I don't see my 
little word 'on'. Oh, yes, .here it is, 
'Francis on Thursday.' " 

"Suppose you take the other one, 
'Anon Francis? No, Francis'." 

"But there is no 'on' in that one." 

"Yes, my dear, there are two ; so we 
have each part of the name flanked by 
'on,' 'on Francis on' and 'on bacons on.' 
It is made doubly plain that they are to 
be joined." 

"But it isn't 'on Francis on', it's 'Anon 
Francis. No'." 

" 'No' is only 'oN' backwards, one of 
the cipher tricks you have just learned; 
and please notice how many times Fran- 
cis has been trying to tell us that the 
joining word is 'on.' He keeps repeat- 
ing 'anon,' 'anon,' an on. an on. 

"And now I will show you the name 
Bacon on the Monument. We have de- 
ciphered a challenge to find the name of 
the Testator. 'Who.se name read if 
THOU canst' would be meaningless if the 
name could not be read ; so the letters 
that spell the name are indicated by let- 
ter-signs and are to be joined like words. 
We must always go first to our key- 
words to find joining signs, as I showed 
you for 'This' and 'Who.' Now please 
look at 'monument' and 'Tombe' again. 
You notice that just beneath the letter 
'O' in each of these words is placed the 
letter 'I.' LTnder 'monument' is 'dide,' 
its mate in the lower line of the dating 
is 'die' and just above this word is 'doi' 
with the 'O' and 'I' joined. We must 
therefore take both of these letters, com- 
bined, as our sign. 



In 'obiit' 



between O and I 



we get B. 

In 'obiit ano' between I and O. and over an I, we get A. 
In 'JcDicio' before I and O we get C. 

In 'iioi' where I and O join we get O. 

In 'cENio' before I and O we get N. 



Latin words were of some use here, if 
not to Shakespeare, hving or dead. 

Speaking of Latin words leads me to 
tell you that if you care to know how 
the student is instructed in the use of 
combined letters there is much informa- 
tion to be obtained from 'Love's Labour's 
Lost,' Act V. Scene i, which will repay 
the careful study of all lovers of puz- 
zles. 

"But let us resume. Please note that 
the dot under the letter O in 'Socratem' 
is a part of a letter 'i,' and 'cienio So- 
cr.atem' is the name used for the Tes- 
tator, which is now shown (by O and I) 
to be related to our deciphered word 
B.\coN. This name begins at the usual 
place for a signature, so we have the 
message commencing with 'Good frend' 
and signed b.acon. Another point of in- 
terest is shown in the discovered coup- 
ling (by O and I) of the words 'DOI' 
and 'DIE,' '16' follows 'DOI" and -2^ 
follows 'DIE'; so we have the year 1623 
on the Monument at the expense of 
Shakespeare's birthday. 'APL,' the last 
word of all, is a clever ending. '.Vprilis' 
is April, but '.\perilis, means open." 

"Where in the world did you learn 
to read the cipher." 

"Right here in the Shakespeare plays." 

"Who taught you?" 

"Unfortunately I was obliged to dig 
out all the instructions without help. 
The discovery of the Word-Cipher was 
made by Dr. Orville W. Owen sometime 
before 1893, the year when I first learned 
of it, but the instructions and rules for 
deciphering had not been published. 

"As an example of the cipher's verity, 
however, I will tell you how I tested it 
with these very decipherings that lie be- 
fore us. I worked the messages out in 
the fall of 1903 and was very desirous 
of having them verified by Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Wells Gallup, who is without a peer 
in this line of literary work and knows 
how to read the Baconian ciphers better, 
I believe, than any living person. She 
is the Discoverer of the use of Bacon's 



Bi-Literal Cipher in the type of the first 
folio edition of the Shakespeare plays. 
So in the spring of i<;04 ^Irs. (jallup 
was informed of my discovery of these 
cipher messages, which reveal the hiding 
place of the manuscripts. As no atten- 
tion had been given to the writings on 
the Marbles or in the Dedication, by 
either Dr. Owen or Mrs. Gallup, neither 
one was aware that they contained such 
a find. However, Mrs. GallWj:) at once 
most kindly consented to oblige me by 
searching out the proof of my assertions. 
To avoid the possibility of any influence 
by suggestion it was agreed that Mrs. 
Gallup's search be made without other 
information than the sources from which 
I had obtained the story. So I mailed 
Blue Prints from Tracings of the rub- 
bings and with this meagre information 
she went to work on the Inscriptions and 
on the Dedication. I had given her no 
list of key-words, nevertheless in a very 
short time I received her decipherings. 
They agreed with mine almost word for 
word ; the very few and slight differences 
in 'the choice of omissions were of no 
ini])ortance. The point to be noted is, 
that each of us learned to read this Word- 
Cipher from the instructions which we 
independently dug out of the Shakes- 
peare plays and that the results of our 
work were brought to an exact agree- 
ment, independently." 

"I wonder you did not go straight to 
Stratford, have the false monument 
pulled down, the desecrated grave opened, 
and get the hidden things. Aren't they 
worth going after?" 

"My dear child they are priceless, and 
at first I entertained fond hopes of a 
Discoverer's meed. But you don't know 
the English people, nor how profound is 
their reverence for everything that bears 
Shakespeare's name. To attempt to force 
entry into his tomb with nothing better 
than the scribblings of a cipher quill 
would be like trying to break into the 
Bank of England with a seamstress' bod- 
kin. Then, besides all this, my investi- 



gations leave me in some doubt about things can have happened in three hun- 

finding the manuscripts in this tomb or dred years. Some day this grave and 

monument to-day. They were placed some others will probably be opened 

there at first, beyond question, but many and then we shall all know." 



POSTSCRIPTUM. 

Thus come to us ; on wings of woven words, across the 
gulch and gap of time, plowed out by speeding centuries ; 
these Messengers of Truth. They tell us a story, its like 
was never told before. About Devices, of such cunning 
kind they dulled discenmient and tricked our senses so, 
we thought all magic in the Wand, not seeing the Magi- 
cian. But now the story's told ; the trick exposed ; what's 
best to do? Smother good common sense in sentiment for 
a servant clad in garments of his master's wit? Or, bring 
our gifts to Him who was so much the Master of his Art, 
that though his lines are hurt and hobbled with a Cipher 
chain they yet outstrip all praise and to our astounded 
gaze reveal a Genius who will ever be a world's sublime 
Masterpiece. 



10 



\QV 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



t":- -1 i5,5 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 

illllllllllllllllllllll!llllll!!llinilllllllll 



014 150 066 1 « 



